Hello,
Exactly. Alsace authorized the use of thermonuclear weapons to combat the ComStar landings which took place on Terra during CASE WHITE. It is less clear whether he had any say in the later nuclear events that occurred, such as the glassing of St. Louis. Out-of-character, he had nothing to do with the Meggido attacks during the final recapture of Terra, but by then, he already had the blood of millions on his hands--many of them Terran.
Although this invokes Godwin's Law, consider: According to various sources, little evidence exists to suggest that Adolf Hitler ever personally pumped gas into the chambers during the Holocaust, and some textbooks suggest his role in the genocides was more one of inaction against the runaway hatred he fostered than actually calling for such exterminations (the premise being he merely wanted to seize the wealth of these victims to power his war machine and rebuild post-WWI Germany; extermination was not the initial plan). But to call him blameless in the Holocaust would be completely and patently wrong, as it took place on his authorization. Likewise, many of those who "just followed his orders" could not escape the same justice.
The Geneva Trials that followed the fall of the Word, in many ways, directly mirror the Nuremberg Trails that followed the fall of Nazi Germany, and it's not altogether unintentional. After spending over a decade breeding terror, fear, and hatred across the Inner Sphere, the Word's senior leadership faced a comeuppance of their own making, and few were likely to get off the hook. The highest-ranking captured WoB stooge? Oh, HE hangs!
Hopefully, that clarifies.
Thank you,
- Herbert Beas
BattleTech
Catalyst Game Labs
